Tiger aims for 2000 form

TIGER WOODS last night came out on the side of Padraig Harrington’s viewpoint, that winning the US Open Championship very often involves playing a lot of boring golf.

Woods goes into the tournament beginning at Olympia Fields tomorrow as 5 to 2 favourite and with the usual huge level of expectation hanging over him.

Woods gave the performance of his life when capturing the title by a massive fifteen shot margin at Pebble Beach in 2000 and is the defending champion after another relatively clearcut success at Bethpage Park twelve months ago.

Although he failed to make much of an impression in either of his last two outings, the Deutsche Bank TPC of Europe in Hamburg won by Harrington and the Memorial tournament at Muirfield Village, he maintains his game is in very good shape and indeed not very far behind what it was when he produced that superhuman performance at Pebble Beach.

"My game is pretty good, I think," Woods said with a touch of uncertainty.

"I hit the ball well in Germany and didn't make any putts although if you saw the greens you'd know why. Then I hit it really well at Memorial and I just had nine holes there on Saturday afternoon that cost me my chance of winning the tournament.

"My ball striking is now close to Pebble Beach in 2000. I don't hit the ball as long as I did then, with my shorter irons, that's for sure, as I don't go at it as hard. Everything else is about the same.

"My trajectory is maybe a little different and my ball flight is a little flatter than in 2000. That's just from the overall swing changes that I've made. But for comfort and confidence, it's very close."

All of which sounds ominous for the remainder of the field here this week. Woods in his 2000 form is invincible, it's as simple as that. Furthermore, in the last decade or so, his 12th place finish as defending champion is the best of any defending champion.

He believes the contrasts in the courses have much to do with this.

"I think when you go to certain courses, they just fit your eye," he maintains.

"And then the next year, it's a totally different golf course. One of the biggest things for guys who have won the tournament is to go next to a course where no one has ever played it before, so there's no past experience, there's nothing to recall from positive experiences because no one played there."

Inevitably, Harrington's comments about the type of game required to win the US Open was raised with Woods who nodded his head in agreement and added:

"It's a different type of challenge. The best way I've heard it described is you've got to plod your way along. If you hit your ball in the rough, knock it out, wedge it on, try to make a putt.

"Every player probably claims it's boring golf although any tournament you play in, if you hit it straight, hit the ball on the green, make putts, you're going to be successful."

There is a very definite feeling that Olympia Fields will not be anything like as demanding a test as, say, Bethpage last year and Pebble Beach in 2000 (for all but Woods, of course!).

Typical of the sanitised type of press conference he gives, Tiger wasn't prepared to be too explicit.

"You can't say that anything stacks up to Pebble Beach, it's one of the most beautiful places in all of golf, and yes, we do play some very historic venues," he responded.

"Last year was completely different and it was a huge success. And I think this year is going to be the same. This is not as easy as people think.

"And when you get a lot of wind swirling through those trees, that's pretty tough. Some of the holes may be short but they've got fairways that are 18, 20 yards wide. If the wind blows, over par could very easily win the tournament."

This 103rd Open is significant for the presence in the field of the 16 year-old Tom Glissmeyer from Kansas City.

Apart from his remarkable golfing prowess he came through sectional and regional qualifying and plays off a handicap of plus 3 Glissmeyer is a bit of an academic genius as well having won many awards in science and been nominated to the National Scholastic Society for Who's Who in Science.

Even so, it's going to be a nerve wracking few days for one so young. Tiger Woods, after all was 19 when he contested his first major!

"I'd already played in a few Tour events prior to that and played a few practice rounds with some of the guys so it was easier for me", Woods accepted.

"This is his first one and it's a big one, so it's something he's got to go out and deal with. All he can do is play his own game, stick with what got him here and he'll be fine."